Kraft Foods v. Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union

Name of Assigned Judge Sitting Judge if Other or Magistrate Judge Blanche M. Manning than Assigned Judge

CASE TITLE

DOCKET ENTRY TEXT:

The court has considered the submissions of the Retirees, who filed amicus curiae filings after being granted leave to do so, as well as plaintiffs Kraft Foods Global and Kraft Foods Global Retiree Medical Plan. It finds that the plaintiffs have standing to proceed with the instant declaratory judgment action, Kraft's 2011 changes to medical coverages for retirees provided by the Plan did not violate any of the applicable CBAs, and the CBAs did not give the Retirees a vested right to a lifetime of unchangeable medical benefits. A declaratory judgment to this effect is hereby entered. Thus, the motion for default judgment filed by Kraft and the Plan [14] is granted. The clerk is directed to enter a Rule 58 judgment and terminate this case from the court's docket.

#[ For further details see text below.]

STATEMENT

Background

Plaintiff Kraft Foods Global is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Illinois. Plaintiff Kraft Foods Global Retiree Medical Plan is an ERISA welfare benefits plan administered by Kraft in Illinois. The Plan offers retiree medical coverage to certain Kraft retirees, their eligible dependents and surviving spouses.

Kraft owned and operated a cereal manufacturing plant in Battle Creek, Michigan for several decades until it sold the plant in 2008. While Kraft was operating the plant, hourly-paid production and maintenance employees employed there were represented by defendant United Cereal, Bakery and Foodworkers Local 374 of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, AFL-CIO (the "Local Union"), which in turn was an affiliate of defendant Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union UFCW CLC (the "National Union") (collectively, "the Unions").

In early 2011, Kraft changed certain retiree benefits. Affected retirees who believe that a series of collective bargaining agreements between the Local Union and Kraft and its predecessors (the "Retirees") prevent Kraft from altering their benefits filed a federal action against Kraft in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan. See Battle Creek Chapter of Local 374 Retirees v. Kraft Foods Global, No. 11 976. Two days later, Kraft and the Plan filed suit against the Unions in this district.

Unbeknownst to this court, after Kraft filed the Illinois action, both the Retirees and Kraft promptly sought relief from the Michigan court. Specifically, the Retirees asked the Michigan court to enjoin this court from proceeding with Kraft's Illinois declaratory judgment and Kraft filed a motion to stay the Michigan case in favor of the Illinois case. The Michigan court denied both motions. In the meantime, the defendant Unions in the case pending before this court failed to answer or otherwise plead. Accordingly, default was entered against them pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 55(a)

Kraft and the Plan then filed a motion for default judgment in this case seeking a declaratory judgment that:

1. [Kraft was] not prohibited by contract or law from implementing the 2011 changes to medical coverages for retirees provided by the Plan;

2. [Kraft] did not violate the law or any contract by implementing the 2011 changes to medical coverages for retirees provided by the Plan; and

3. The Retirees from the Battle Creek Plant do not have a vested right to a lifetime of ...

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